Optimal-tuning PID control of adaptive materials for structural efficiency

The objective of this paper was solving the optimization problem of lightweight stiffened structures modelled as a two-dimensional domain in an efficient computational way. The underlying premise was that mass should be distributed in an efficient way, so as to use a minimum amount of material to accomplish the mechanical function. This premise was expressed as a global, multi-objective optimization problem in which stiffness and mass were conflicting objectives. Alternative local evolution rules were implemented to update mass density or Young’s modulus at each step of the iterative procedure. The solution of the structural optimization problem was accomplished by a novel automatic procedure consisting of two consecutive stages of control and optimization. In the first stage of Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control gains were manually selected whereas in the second stage the finding of optimal values of control gains, target, and cost indices was allowed. In this study a bone-like material was adopted and a thin slab was analysed as a sample problem.     

A Semantic Proof of Polytime Soundness of Light Affine Logic

We define realizability semantics for Light Affine Logic ( LAL\mathsf{LAL} ) which has the property that denotations of functions are polynomial time computable by construction of the model. This gives a new proof of polytime-soundness of LAL\mathsf{LAL} which is considerably simpler than the standard proof based on proof nets and is entirely semantical in nature. The model construction uses a new instance of a resource monoid; a general method for interpreting systems based on Linear Logic introduced earlier by the authors.     

Realizability models and implicit complexity

New, simple, proofs of soundness (every representable function lies in a given complexity class) for Elementary Affine Logic, LFPL and Soft Affine Logic are presented. The proofs are obtained by instantiating a semantic framework previously introduced by the authors and based on an innovative modification of realizability. The proof is a notable simplification on the original already semantic proof of soundness for the above mentioned logical systems and programming languages. A new result made possible by the semantic framework is the addition of polymorphism and a modality to LFPL, thus allowing for an internal definition of inductive datatypes. The methodology presented proceeds by assigning both abstract resource bounds in the form of elements from a resource monoid and resource-bounded computations to proofs (respectively, programs).     

Modelling Calculi with Name Mobility using Graphs with Equivalences

In the theory of graph rewriting, the use of coalescing rules, i.e., of rules which besides deleting and generating graph items, can coalesce some parts of the graph, turns out to be quite useful for modelling purposes, but, at the same time, problematic for the development of a satisfactory partial order concurrent semantics for rewrites. Rewriting over graphs with equivalences, i.e., (typed hyper)-graphs equipped with an equivalence over nodes provides a technically convenient replacement of graph rewriting with coalescing rules, for which a truly concurrent semantics can be easily defined. The expressivity of such a formalism is tested in a setting where coalescing rules typically play a basic role: the encoding of calculi with name passing as graph rewriting systems. Specifically, we show how the (monadic fragment) of the solo calculus, one of the dialect of those calculi whose distinctive feature is name fusion, can be encoded as a rewriting system over graph with equivalences.     

Reduction rules for time Petri nets

The goal of net reduction is to increase the effectiveness of Petri-netbased real-time program analysis. Petri-net-based analysis, like all reachabilitybased methods, suffers from the state explosion problem. Petri net reduction is one key method for combating this problem. In this paper, we extend several rules for the reduction of ordinary Petri nets to work with time Petri nets. We introduce a notion of equivalence among time Petri nets, and prove that our reduction rules yield equivalent nets. This notion of equivalence guarantees that crucial timing and concurrency properties are preserved.     

On the detection of card-sharing traffic through wavelet analysis and Support Vector Machines

In the last years, the interest in methods and techniques for circumventing the security of the available digital video broadcasting systems is continuously increasing. Digital TV providers are struggling to restrict access to their video contents only to authorized users, by deploying more and more sophisticated conditional access systems. At the state-of-the-art, the most significant menace is the card-sharing activity which exploits a known weakness allowing an authorized subscriber to provide access to digital contents to a potentially large group of unauthorized ones connected over a communication network. This is usually realized by using ad hoc customized devices. Detecting the presence of these illegal systems on a network, by recognizing their related traffic is an issue of primary importance. Unfortunately, to avoid the identification of such traffic, payload obfuscation strategies based on encryption are often used, hindering packet inspection techniques.This paper presents a strategy for the detection of card-sharing traffic, empowered by machine-learning-driven traffic classification techniques and based on the natural capability of wavelet analysis to decompose a traffic time series into several component series associated with particular time and frequency scales and hence allowing its observation at different frequency component levels and with different resolutions. These ideas have been used for the proof-of-concept implementation of an SVM-based binary classification scheme that relies only on time regularities of the traffic and not on the packet contents and hence is immune to payload obfuscation techniques.     

Mechanical squeezing of an elastomeric nanochannel device: numerical simulations and ionic current characterization

Peculiar transport phenomena appear at nanoscale, since surface effects strongly affect the behaviour of fluids. Electrostatic and steric interactions, capillary forces and entropic effects play a key role in the behaviour of fluids and biomolecules. Since these effects strongly depend on the size of the nanofluidic system, a careful characterization of the fluidic environment is necessary. Moreover, the possibility to dynamically modulate the size of nanochannels is very appealing in the field of biomolecule manipulation. Recently, we have developed a lab-on-chip made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). This polymeric device is based on a tuneable nanochannel able to dynamically change its dimension in order to fit the application of interest. In fact, a mechanical compression applied on the top of the elastomeric device squeezes the nanochannel, reducing the channel cross section and allowing a dynamical optimization of the nanostructures. In this paper, this squeezing process is fully characterized both numerically and experimentally. This analysis provides information on the reduction of the nanochannel dimensions induced by compression as a function of the work of adhesion and of the stiffness of the materials composing the device. Moreover, calculations demonstrate the possibility to predict the change of the nanochannel size and shape induced by the compression. The possibility to dynamically tune the channel size opens up new opportunities in biomolecular sensing or sieving and in the study of new hydrodynamics effects.     

Fabrication of a Macroporous Microwell Array for Surface‐Enhanced Raman Scattering

Here, a colloidal templating procedure for generating high‐density arrays of gold macroporous microwells, which act as discrete sites for surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), is reported. Development of such a novel array with discrete macroporous sites requires multiple fabrication steps. First, selective wet‐chemical etching of the distal face of a coherent optical fiber bundle produces a microwell array. The microwells are then selectively filled with a macroporous structure by electroless template synthesis using self‐assembled nanospheres. The fabricated arrays are structured at both the micrometer and nanometer scale on etched imaging bundles. Confocal Raman microscopy is used to detect a benzenethiol monolayer adsorbed on the macroporous gold and to map the spatial distribution of the SERS signal. The Raman enhancement factor of the modified wells is investigated and an average enhancement factor of 4 × 10⁴ is measured. This demonstrates that such nanostructured wells can enhance the local electromagnetic field and lead to a platform of ordered SERS‐active micrometer‐sized spots defined by the initial shape of the etched optical fibers. Since the fabrication steps keep the initial architecture of the optical fiber bundle, such ordered SERS‐active platforms fabricated onto an imaging waveguide open new applications in remote SERS imaging, plasmonic devices, and integrated electro‐optical sensor arrays.     

Flexible,Low-loss Waveguide Designs for Efficient Coupling to Quantum Cascade Lasers in the Far-infrared

We coupled linearly polarized and azimuthally polarized Terahertz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) to the low-loss optical modes of hollow core waveguides having a sequence of different metallic or dielectric inner coatings. The latter waveguides have been specifically designed to force the propagation of a dominant optical mode once the thickness (d) of the inner dielectric coating is properly chosen. Our results demonstrate that both the TE01 and the TE11 modes can be easily converted to a hybrid one when d > 6 μm allowing the propagation of THz QCL beams with transmission losses as low as 1.5 dB/m, bending losses < 1.1 dB and reasonably high coupling efficiencies (87%).